Our community

Why is community affairs important for Clifford Chance? We want every Clifford Chance office to engage with its local community, using its talents and resources to help others. This is crucial to our recruitment, retention and reputation. In line with our Principles and the skills we have to offer, we continue to focus on three themes across the firm: access to justice, finance and education.

The Clifford Chance Foundation

In April 2009, the Clifford Chance Foundation launched the first of its large-scale commitments: support for major international projects run by Avocats Sans Frontères (ASF) France and Save the Children. The Foundation, established in 2008, was set up to provide a focused and co-ordinated approach to our charitable giving, aligned with our goals of improving access to justice, to finance and to education. It is the focal point around which the firm’s charity fundraising, pro bono work and volunteering efforts come together.

Helping Avocats Sans Frontières

Clifford Chance is working with ASF France – in conjunction with existing ASF associations (for example, in Belgium, Canada and Mali) – to help the NGO achieve its fair access to justice objectives and to develop its international network. The firm will also support the formation of new local ASF associations, particularly in English-speaking countries and in Asia. We’ve committed some £225,000 a year for three years to the project, which builds on an existing four-year relationship between ASF France and Clifford Chance in Paris, where a team of 15 people are already active members of ASF. The team has assisted in projects in Cambodia, Nigeria, Mali and Colombia, and has promoted human rights in French-speaking Africa and assisted in creating a human rights defence network in west and central Africa.

"We are looking forward to working closely together for the next three years," says François Cantier, Founder and President of ASF France, "to make real progress in ensuring the right of defence of local lawyers who are threatened around the world."

Better Chances for Children in Delhi

Clifford Chance is working with Save the Children on a project to provide education for the poorest children in Delhi, India, in 26 government schools. Chances for Children involves a commitment of £150,000 a year for three years, training over 500 primary school teachers and more than 50 kindergarten teachers. The project will benefit over 14,000 children who were previously marginalised from good quality pre-school and primary education.

"Clifford Chance is giving thousands of children the opportunity to go to a school with good quality education," said Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive, Save the Children, "and this project will help to lift them and their families out of poverty."

Pro bono and community hours

The firm’s pro bono and volunteering hours increased by 15% in 2008/09. Improvements in the system that we use to record pro bono time revealed that we underestimated our pro bono and volunteering by over 6,000 hours in 2007/08. The figures above restate those that appeared in our CR report 2008, and the 15% increase is based on the restated number for 2007/8 of 79,061.

In some jurisdictions where we operate there is no tradition of pro bono activity. In others it is well entrenched. An uneven picture that shows more hours invested in pro bono time in some offices and regions than others reflects these different starting points; however we are encouraged by the large increase in the amount of pro bono time recorded in Asia and Europe, demonstrating the steps being made by Clifford Chance to improve access to justice, education and finance.

Community and pro bono hours

Region	2008/09	2007/08	Change
Asia	2,337	1,906	+23%
Americas	39,104	37,448	+4%
CEE	3,908	1,155	+338%
Western Europe	6,998	3,640	+92%
UK and Middle East	37,004	34,911	+6%
In London and the US, 68% (2007/08: 56%) of our lawyers performed pro bono or community affairs work last year (London 64% (2007/08: 54%), US 79% (2007/08: 63%).